“Harder, better, faster, longer — that seems to be Apple’s mantra for its new iPhone, which has had its supposed casing snapped alongside the current iPhone 4S,” Luke Westaway reports for CNET UK.

“Japanese blog Macotakara made the comparison, which points to a device that’s a good deal longer than the existing model, and sporting a display that’s about 4 inches on the diagonal,” Westaway reports. “Snaps of what could be the casing for Apple’s upcoming toy appeared several days ago, sporting a striped metallic look. Those images were followed swiftly by blueprints that matched that elongated design. These new snaps suggest Apple’s next effort will be a healthy chunk taller, but not significantly wider than the iPhone 4S.”

Westaway reports, “There’s no way of telling whether this casing is the genuine article — it could be a fake, or a prototype design that’s somehow found its way into the wild. The panel does chime with earlier reports from the Wall Street Journal that the next iPhone would have at least a 4-inch display.”

Read more in the full article here.